February 22, 2010: Harvest Monday

I could show you photos of basket after basket of lettuce that was harvested this week, but I'll spare you the repetition. Instead, I'll show you the one tiny tomato that I picked. The plant is still producing, but it is a pitiful thing to behold. It has only six more days to live, so it has served its purpose.

Next Saturday I will be pulling everything from the little Arizona salad garden, in preparation for our trip home. I'm planning on leaving the roots on the lettuce plants, putting them all in a damp pillowcase, then into a cooler for the trip. If I'm lucky, they might survive, and can be transplanted into containers as soon as we arrive home. If not, Cookie will have fresh dinners for as long as the greens last. I'll save all the tiny carrots, beets and spinach plants for him to eat, and I'll pull and bundle the onions, as I know they can be replanted in the big garden in Washington. I'll try to take individual plants of the pansies and alyssum, blossoms, roots and dirt, and put them into plastic bags. I don't know if they will live, but it's worth a try. Only the cilantro and rosemary will remain in their pots, hopefully we can still find room for them.

Of course, I'll have to take pictures of the garden destruction and get them posted before we leave (very, very early on the morning of the 28th.). After that, I'll be MIA for a few days. We won't be home until March 2, then there will be all the unpacking and putting things away, hugging and visiting with the kids and grandkids, calling the cable company to schedule the internet service connection.....the entire week will be wildly busy.

Hi Gran - Just had to stop by to tell you how much I covet that lonely little homegrown tomato. Oh, I bet it would taste divine with some fresh mozzerella and basil.. *drool* July can't get here fast enough!

One little tomato is better than none! That must be quite the undertaking to do a household move twice a year. I hope the little plants survive for you so they can resume growing in Washington state for you.

Well, this is a rarity! I am sure we will never again this year see a photo of ONE tomato from you, lol! Have a safe trip, I am anxiously awaiting you getting back to your big garden and looking forward to your plantings!

You're making me feel guilty about my repeat carrot photos. HAHA! I'm glad you got another tomato from you winter tomato plant adventure. You'll have to snap a picture of how your plants are doing. Hopefully they are recovering, poor things.

Just Jenn, it will be a long time before I get vine ripened ones again. BTW, I've missed you!

********TIG, it would only take about one curd of cheese for that little tomato. It's very small.

********Caffeinated Mom, as I was just telling TIG, that tomato is too small to dress up, it's a 1" cherry tomato! I'm going to pop it in my mouth before Mr. H gets hold of it.

********Kitsap, I must admit it was easier with the motor home, and I could carry my plants back and forth in the bathtub! Now we must stuff everything into a small Ford Ranger, including two dogs and a rabbit in a cage!

********Erin, hopefully I will annoy you with an excess of tomato photos in a few months!

********Thomas, one of the plants bit the dust and went to the landfill about two weeks ago. The other is not a pretty sight, but still has a few green tomatoes hanging on. I will embarrass myself and take a photo before I rip it out on Saturday.

Ottawa gardener, I'm hiding the tomato from Mr. H, and I'll be popping it into my own mouth at lunch time! I'm not being greedy, he has eaten all but one of the winter tomatoes, so this will only be my second taste.

Daphne, if I go with Charter Cable, it should be hooked up the week I return, but I'm thinking of trying QWest, which is a bit cheaper than Charter, so I don't know how speedy they are. Charter is already installed into the house, it just needs to be activated again. Of course, I can always run into town to the library, but that gets old real fast.

********Noelle, I hope the lettuce survives, too. It is just really starting to grow and give us lots of salads now, and although Cookie will enjoy the carrot tops, it will be hard pulling those lovely underdeveloped carrots. I wish they had another month to grow. They were planted November 9, you'd think they would be mature enough to eat by now. Growth was just very slow all winter, and they've really taken off these past couple of weeks.

I do have a few cells of lettuce seedlings that will make the trip. If the rest of the lettuce doesn't survive, I should still have some that is transplantable.

Hi Annie's Granny, glad to see that you are gearing up for a fruitful 2010. I hope to get inspiration from your blog for some serious gardening this year also - please keep posting. Love your meticulous and detailed posts + pictures!

Dan, I probably won't be growing an Arizona garden any more, since we've decided to spend holidays at home with the kids from now on. That means we'll only come down here for January and February from now on. We have the place up for sale, so hope somebody buys it, as two months of the year are hardly worth the trip. In the meantime, I am going to try some dwarf varieties, and maybe I can find one that will overwinter at home! Mr. H needs a tomato plant to carry out every morning and in every night ;-)

Granny, I know it must be hard to contemplate such destruction. Still, I think it must be pretty exciting to return to your home garden. :) (Can't wait to see it after you get settled in.)

I hope you get to eat your second winter tomato; on behalf of those of us who are stuck with grocery store tomato imports (or in my case, resolutely refusing to buy such tasteless garbage) for the next few months, I envy you even that one, small taste of summer!

Meredith, hopefully the garden destruction here will lead to the beginning garden at home. Even if I have to grow the lettuce under lights for a while. If the larger lettuces survive, they shouldn't suffer much from transplanting.

Maureen, it has been a short winter season for us. We usually stay for 6 months, but this year it was just over four months. It's the garden's fault, now that I start my own tomato & pepper seeds, I have to go home a month early. And getting all the tomatoes picked and preserved keeps me in the garden a month later!

********Rachel, thank you. I hope we don't hit too much snow going home, this weather has really been crazy.